Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Police ordered to remove all illegal materials
POLICEMEN will be removing illegally posted campaign materials for the Oct. 29 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 will issue guidelines to all commanders and lower units to tear down all illegally posted campaign materials that they find.
Regional Chief of Staff Arnulfo Perez said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has mandated them to enforce the election code.
He said former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos had noted that some police officers passed by campaign materials that were in clear violation of election laws but chose to ignore these.
He said the Comelec does not have enough personnel to implement election laws and that they have deputized the Philippine National Police, which is usually the first to see and receive reports of any violation of the election code.
He pointed out that because the commission does not have enough personnel to implement these laws, campaign materials abound long after the elections are over.
“We cannot be accused of partisan politics because the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are supposed to be non-partisan,” Perez told reporters.
PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr. earlier ordered all unit commanders to strictly enforce election laws.
The PRO 7 will be having a final command conference on election preparations with members of the Comelec and Armed Forces of the Philippines tomorrow.
After the conference, it will be decided which barangays would be classified as election areas of immediate concern (EAIC) and election areas of concern (EAC).
The PRO 7 is monitoring 119 barangays in Central Visayas.
Perez said they will also be checking the list of candidates to find out if PNP personnel assigned in their barangays are related to any of them and can be transferred to another unit before the elections. (MEA)
